The spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress APC Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, Festus Keyamo SAN, has petitioned the State Security Services SSS, demanding the arrest and prosecution of the Labour Party Presidential candidate Peter Obi and his running mate Datti Baba-Ahmed.
He is seeking their arrest for comments he described as incendiary and capable of causing rebellion.
The Minister of State, Labour and Employment, addressed the petition to the Director General State Services DGSS on Thursday, 23 March, 2023.
The Minister said in a post-election period such as this, there is a need to soothe frayed nerves, lower the temperature and begin the healing process.
“The President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu issued a statement to this effect a few days ago.
“However, it appears the President and Vice-Presidential Candidates of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed are not prepared to toe this conciliatory path for the sake of peace and national cohesion, whilst exercising their rights to pursue duly laid down constitutional means of addressing their grievances,” he stated.
Keyamo noted that since the declaration of the Presidential election results by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the duo have been moving from one media house to the other making incendiary comments.
According to him: “These comments and claims are made, not just within the boundaries of exercising their rights to freedom of speech and the freedom to air their grievances publicly, but they have since crossed the line to call for the outright truncation of democracy by insisting on the adoption of other processes outside the contemplation of our Constitution.
“In some cases, their privies have even called for the establishment of an Interim Government.
“The latest of such are the comments made by Datti Baba-Ahmed on behalf of himself and Mr. Peter Obi on Channels TV on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, wherein he threatened that if the President-Elect is sworn in on May 29th, 2023, it would ‘signal the end of democracy’.
“Posing as an accuser, a judge and a jury all by himself, he unilaterally declared the duly elected President-elect as ‘unconstitutional’ and, in a subliminal manner, threatened mayhem if the President-Elect is sworn in on May 29th, 2023.
“I also have it on good authority that Mr. Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed have camped some youths in a popular hotel in Abuja with the sole aim of instructing them to push out inciting messages everyday on social media in order to cause panic and fear within the federation and to incite people to riot and social unrest.
“It is noteworthy that Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed have submitted Elections Petitions to the courts for adjudication, but their conducts and utterances amount to a subversion of the processes they have instituted in court and a subversion of our Constitution and the laid-down processes for addressing disputes and grievances.
“These conduct and utterances are a build-up to something more sinister and it is important you rein them in now!
“In the circumstance, I submit this petition in my personal capacity as a patriotic Nigerian to invite/arrest, interrogate and after investigation, if necessary, charge both individuals to court for their conduct which amounts to incitement and treasonable felony”.
The petition was filed barely two days after Peter Obi filed his petition to challenge the victory of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 25 February election.
In his petition before the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja, Obi alleged that the election was characterized by various irregularities including the non-qualification of the APC candidate.
According to him, Tinubu’s forfeiture of his funds to the US government over drug trafficking allegation is an indication that the former Lagos State Governor committed infractions that should disqualify him from running for an election in Nigeria.
